74 LEON BLUM

The new Minister of War, Cavaignac, determined
to put an end once and for all to VAffaire Dreyfus. In
a speech before the Chamber, on July 27, 1898, he
brought the coup de massue into full day. It pur-
ported to be a letter written in blue pencil by
Panizzardi to Schwarzkoppen as follows : "I see
that a Deputy proposes to interpellate the Govern-
ment on the subject of Dreyfus. If Rome demands
fresh explanations, I shall say that I never had
connections with this Jew. If you are questioned^
reply the same, for it would never do to have
people know how far things have gone with him/*
The Minister was rewarded with universal applause
and the title of " the new Boulanger." Ambitious
to savour again, if possible, so delicious a triumph,
he loosed a band of experts on bordereau^ dossier and
coup de massue. Their first discovery was that the
" knock-down blow ** was a forgery. Colonel
Henry admitted proudly that the document was
his handiwork, and justified himself with the
excuse of " patriotic fraud.'5 The next day,
August 31, in the military prison of Mont Valerien,
he cut his throat with a razor which had been left
thoughtfully within reach. He killed himself not
out of remorse over the wrong done to Dreyfus,
that being, in his opinion, a trifling matter ; but
for fear that his wholesale traffic as a master-spy had
come into view. Esterhazy stole away to England,
where for twenty-five years, under the alias of
"Voilemont," he dragged out an obscure and
wretched existence- He died May 21, 1923, having
long since confessed to the authorship of the